Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

The menu is not the meal.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.

The secret of happiness is to want what you already have.

The heart of one who practices is like the earth. No matter what they throw on it, the earth remains unchanged.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour.

Ethical conduct is not a constraint upon our freedom but a condition of our freedom.

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

Each moment of mindfulness is a moment of purification.

The Buddha taught us to leave alone the things that don't lead to awakening.

The ultimate source of happiness is not money and power, but warm-heartedness.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

Panic, anxiety, and stress are not obstacles to the practice. They are the path to wisdom and compassion.

The purpose of meditation is to gain right understanding of the true nature of mental and physical phenomena.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

Those who understand interdependent origination understand suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

Meditation is not about achieving anything. It's about letting go of everything.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

The goal of the Buddhist path is not to add something to our existence but to discover something that has been there all along.

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

Wisdom arises when you see the true characteristics of phenomena through direct experience.

The practice is not about achieving special states but about seeing ordinary experience with extraordinary clarity.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.